Production, Delivery and Playback of 3D Graphics

Abstract

Three-dimensional (3D) representation is one of the cornerstones of Computer Graphics (CG) and multimedia content. Advances in this domain, coupled with the highly fuelled progression of 3D graphics cards, have pushed the complexity of these representations into a whole new era, whereby a single real-time model can consist of more than a million polygons. Huge architectural buildings, everyday objects, even humans themselves, can be represented using 3D graphics in such detail that it is difficult to distinguish between real and virtual objects. Concurrently, and much towards the other end of the scale, many devices, such as Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), mobile phones, laptops and so forth, are now “3D capable” to enhance a user’s experience and to provide much more depth to the information presented. In many cases, these devices access the same content from the same service provider; for example, providing virtual maps/guides, multi-user games and so forth. It is this broadness of content and the heterogeneity of devices in terms of performance, capability, network connection and more that is the main concern in a continuously expanding market. It is also the concern of users to obtain the best quality for their device; that is, the general expectation of any device of higher performance is that overall the quality of the experience will be better.